Tuesday, October 27, 2009

And the WINNER IS...!!??


In my second experience at St. Mary's, it was super hero day, so some of the SUNY Cortland students dressed up in shirts and costumes. Our day was spent in the gymnasium with the fifth and sixth graders, and first through third graders. Our activity was called super hero's verse villains, which was a modified game of capture the flag, but much better of course. With the older kids it was much easier to explain the game to them because they knew the backround of it. They were interested to hear that we changed the game up, and got more into it everytime we changed the locomotor skill. At first we had them running, and the games were going by very quickly, so then we had them gallop everywhere. All of the kids at this age level were good at galloping, however it did slow the pace of the game down. Finally when we broke it down into hopping and walking as low as possible, the game slowed down tremendously, and the kids finally learned to use some strategy, instead of just going as quick as possible. After every game it was up to the us to decide who won, so after each game the kids would come up to us waiting to see who won. Most times it was,"And the Winner is..." which kept the kids interested and focused on the activity.

When the younger kids were brought into the gym, we had to sit them down, get them quiet and explaing the rules to them. Unlike the older kids, they couldn't grasp the concept of the game that quickly. Most of the kids were just running around aimlessly, either into the hoola-hoops or behind the baseline so we had to make a change. Since the younger kids were much more interested in the fact that it was called super hero's verse villains, we included the SUNY Cortland students and made them villains, and had the team that kept winning as the super hero's. By doing this, it kept the kids listening, because they wanted to beat the cortland students, and the kids on our team wanted to help us win. It's the little incentives like that, that can grab a kids attention, or keep a kid listening to you until your done explaining. Like the older kids, after every game the kids were so concerned about who won the game, or if they did win, they were so happy. Overall this was another great experience at St. Mary's.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Shame-Games


Recently in our motor development class we have talked about two games that should belong in the Hall of shame. Dodgeball and kickball, both widely used in physical education classes, but not nearly a good source for exercise, or getting everyone involved. Dodgeball has been around for a long time, but it seems like their is only one way to play-wrong! The old, classic version involves kids lined up at a baseline with the balls in the middle, and once you get hit, you're out for the game. Luckily, their are different kinds, and styles that can be implemented to make sure everyone is staying active, and participating equally.
Dodgeball has many variations, one being the 'prison style', where unlike the original dodgeball, if you get hit, you go to the opposing teams side, and stand behind them behind a baseline. If these people in 'prison or jail' receive a ball, they can use it to hit the opposite team, and if they do, they come back into the game. This not only keeps everyone involved, but allows the game to keep moving. In an original dodgeball setting, the games can go quickly, depending on how even or uneven the teams are. With this type of dodgeball, kids stay active, and are never really out, just waiting to make another play. Their are so many variations that can be thrown in the mixture of these games, for example, you could have to kids throw with their weaker arm, or they cant run, only walk. It's easy to say that dodgeball is bad game, but I would rather put it as a under developed game with a lot of potential. There was a lot of talk about schools taking away dodgeball because of injuries, and mishaps throughout. This really made me think because their are so many other physical games being taught, that you wouldn't really consider dodgeball as vicious activity. In physical education, sports like football, basketball, soccer and hockey are being taught, and they include a much higher risk of getting hurt. So when I hear that these schools are shutting down dodgeball, it just makes me think that it's not being taught the right way. Personally growing up, I played a lot of dodgeball, several school tournaments, and many times in P.E. class, and it kept me very active. When in the right environment, I feel that dodgeball is actually a very good activity to do, but it needs the right equipment, and a smart teacher, so that kids aren't getting lost in the back, and they're staying active the whole time.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Lab 1 at St. Mary's

Lab 1 at St. Mary's was a lot of fun. My group Duck, Duck, Goose decided to play bean bag balance, which was an obstacle course, and the kids had to balance the bean bag on a part of their body throughout the course. Their was five parts to the course, first they had to pick up a stuffed ball and throw it through a hola-hoop. They then walked to the challenge which was bouncing a basketball ten times, with the bean bag still balancing somewhere. That was probably what the kids had the hardest time with. The next challenge was to balance on one foot for ten seconds, and they did pretty well with that I was kind of surprised. After that, the kids walked over to the next challenge which was to kick a soccer ball through the cones, and finally they had to go through a long tunnel, where they had to crawl for about 5 feet. The hard part of this whole course was reminding the kids to keep balancing the bean bag, everytime it fell off their body, they would just pick it up and run to the next challenge.
After our games we went downstairs to the cafeteria where the kids ate snacks, then played board games, legos, and other kid games. I helped the kids build lego ships and helped one girl build a robot. It was interesting to be at a lower level with the kids because they use their imaginations to make cool things. At the end of the day, we played a cool exercise called shaking your silly's out. This was fun because by the end of the day you really do just need to shake it all out, and it was really good for the kids to. It was a great experience for Lab #1.